Weekend Watchdog

Every Friday in our Weekend Watchdog feature, we post suggested questions for scheduled Sunday guests. You can add your own questions in the comment thread. We'll also include contact information for the shows, so we can let them know what their viewers want asked.

And on Sunday at 4 PM ET, tune in to Air America Radio's "Seder on Sundays" program, where I'll offer the Weekend Watchdog Wrap-Up.

Karl Rove, in his week-long attempt to spin his resignation in disgrace, will disgrace three of the Sunday shows: Meet The Press, Face The Nation and Fox News Sunday.

So many questions to ask, so few professional TV talk show hosts. Let’s help them out.

1. You claim you resigned “for the sake of my family.” But your son has already left for college in Texas, and you don’t plan to move back there for a few years.

Further, two weeks before your resignation, you were subpoenaed by the Senate about your role in the Prosecutor Purge.

One week before, Congressional Quarterly reported that the White House’s own Office of Special Counsel was making progress in a “wide-ranging ... inquiry into improper political activity in the administrative reaches of the Bush White House, much of it reportedly under the supervision of Karl Rove... .” (More background at The American Prospect.)

And investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler notes that: “Rather than saying ‘no’ in response to a question whether he is resigning because of congressional scrutiny, he admits only that that is a predictable speculation.”

Why shouldn’t Americans conclude that you resigned not for your family, but to protect the White House from further scandal?

2. You were put in charge of reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina. The effort has been marked by wasteful no-bid contracts, worker abuse by contractors, and a displaced African-American population.

How would you characterize your record in helping the victims of Katrina?

3. You were at the intersection of politics and policy in the White House.

When you came into power in 2001, the conservative Heritage Foundation counseled that the Bush Administration: “must make appointment decisions based on loyalty first and expertise second, and that the whole governmental apparatus must be managed from this perspective.”

It appears you took that advice. Two years later, a former Bush official criticized your operation, saying, “What you’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."

The politicization of basic government functions has been widespread. For example, purging US attorneys, muzzling of climate scientists, arm-twisting intelligence analysts, using government agencies to spread misinformation about Social Security and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, directing government employees to be part of partisan campaigns.

You’re known to say that good policy makes good politics. What good policies came out of this approach to politics?

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